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This article was taken from the January issue of Wired
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The cofounder of the Pirate Bay wants to monetise
appreciation

In April 2009 the Finnish-Norwegian Pirate Bay cofounder Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, 31, was found guilty -- with three
others -- of "assisting in making copyright content available".
Sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay 31 million Swedish
kroner in damages to entertainment companies, he refused
point-blank to co-operate. "Even if I had the money, I'd rather
burn everything I own," he said at the time of his trial. "And not
give them the ashes."

His latest venture is altogether more generous. Flattr is a
"social" micropayments system that allows fans of particular pieces of
content -- blog post or video, song or piece of software -- to make
microdonations to the creator by clicking on a button on the site.
Donors pay a minimum of €2 per month into their accounts, and then
distribute pennies whenever they like.

Flattr takes ten per cent. "Instead of forcing content behind a
paywall," he says, "we wanted a solution based on the net's
principles of free access." Flattr should appeal to "capitalists as
well as socialists like me who want to work together against the
big corporations. We've learned from the net that there are lots of
ways to reach people. I'm not saying Flattr will be the grand
solution, but it will be one of them."